{"title":"Small-scale land-use change effects on breeding success in a desert-living social bird","authors":"Krista N Oswald, Oded Berger-Tal, Uri Roll","doi":"10.1093/beheco/arae023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae023","url":null,"abstract":"Human villages in deserts can provide resources in an otherwise stark environment, potentially buffering against extreme environmental conditions. It is thus expected that breeding within these villages would result in higher fitness. However, choosing to raise offspring in these resource-rich environments may have unintended negative consequences. Here, we studied the breeding success of a cooperative breeding bird nesting in habitats with different levels of human disturbance – the Arabian babbler (Argya squamiceps), in the Negev desert of Israel. We recorded 42 breeding attempts from 15 groups between March and July 2022. We examined overall breeding success, brood size, and causes of nest failure. When nestlings were 6-days old we also calculated daily change in body mass and adult provisioning rate. We found that despite higher resource abundance in villages, proximity to villages did not affect provisioning rate, and nestling gained less mass at higher temperatures for all nests. Currently, there is no evidence that human villages are providing oases for nesting babblers. Nevertheless, various conservation interventions (e.g. encouraging residents to keep cats indoors) could improve babblers' overall fitness. Ultimately, we highlight how for some desert specialists, additional resources provided by humans may not do enough to counter potential negative effects.","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140583677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zegni Triki, Tunhe Zhou, Elli Argyriou, Edson Sousa de Novais, Oriane Servant, Niclas Kolm
{"title":"Social complexity affects cognitive abilities but not brain structure in a Poecilid fish","authors":"Zegni Triki, Tunhe Zhou, Elli Argyriou, Edson Sousa de Novais, Oriane Servant, Niclas Kolm","doi":"10.1093/beheco/arae026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae026","url":null,"abstract":"Some cognitive abilities are suggested to be the result of a complex social life, allowing individuals to achieve higher fitness through advanced strategies. However, most evidence is correlative. Here, we provide an experimental investigation of how group size and composition affect brain and cognitive development in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). For six months, we reared sexually mature females in one of three social treatments: a small conspecific group of three guppies, a large heterospecific group of three guppies and three splash tetras (Copella arnoldi) – a species that co-occurs with the guppy in the wild, and a large conspecific group of six guppies. We then tested the guppies’ performance in self-control (inhibitory control), operant conditioning (associative learning) and cognitive flexibility (reversal learning) tasks. Using X-ray imaging, we measured their brain size and major brain regions. Larger groups of six individuals, both conspecific and heterospecific groups, showed better cognitive flexibility than smaller groups, but no difference in self-control and operant conditioning tests. Interestingly, while social manipulation had no significant effect on brain morphology, relatively larger telencephalons were associated with better cognitive flexibility. This suggests alternative mechanisms beyond brain region size enabled greater cognitive flexibility in individuals from larger groups. Although there is no clear evidence for the impact on brain morphology, our research shows that living in larger social groups can enhance cognitive flexibility. This indicates that the social environment plays a role in the cognitive development of guppies.","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140602554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
João Gabriel Lacerda de Almeida, Gareth Arnott, Paulo Enrique Cardoso Peixoto
{"title":"Vibrating aggression: spider males perform an unusual assessment strategy during contest displays","authors":"João Gabriel Lacerda de Almeida, Gareth Arnott, Paulo Enrique Cardoso Peixoto","doi":"10.1093/beheco/arae028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae028","url":null,"abstract":"A recurrent question in animal contests is whether individuals adopt a self or mutual assessment rule to decide to withdraw from a contest. However, many empirical studies fail to find conclusive support for one of these two possibilities. A possible explanation is that assessment strategies vary between individuals. In the contests of the orb-web spider Trichonephila clavipes, males perform a vibrational display on webs that may escalate to physical contact. Since all individuals perform the vibrational phase and only some of them escalate, we proposed two hypotheses: 1) all individuals perform mutual assessment during the vibrational phase, or 2) some individuals that do not escalate adopt self-assessment, while individuals that escalated adopt mutual assessment. To evaluate these hypotheses, we investigated the relationship between the duration of the vibrational phase and frontal leg length (a proxy of male fight capacity) of loser and winner males in contests that escalated and did not escalate to the physical contact phase. We found a non-significant relationship between duration and losers leg length for both contests that escalate and did not escalate. While we found a positive relationship between duration and winners leg length, particularly in contests that did not escalate. These results do not provide support for mutual assessment or for a mix of different assessment rules among individuals. We suggest that in T. clavipes, the dynamics of the vibrational phase may be explained by two different contest strategies (opponent-only assessment or size-based aggressiveness) that are dependent on intruder motivation to escalate.","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140583640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tamar Lok, Matthijs van der Geest, Petra de Goeij, Eldar Rakhimberdiev, Theunis Piersma
{"title":"Sex-specific nest attendance rhythm and foraging habitat use in a colony-breeding waterbird","authors":"Tamar Lok, Matthijs van der Geest, Petra de Goeij, Eldar Rakhimberdiev, Theunis Piersma","doi":"10.1093/beheco/arae020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae020","url":null,"abstract":"In most colony-breeding species, biparental care during both egg incubation and chick-rearing is inevitable for successful reproduction, requiring parents to coordinate their nest attendance and foraging time. The extent to which the rhythm of nest attendance is adjusted to temporal and spatial variation in food availability is poorly understood. Here we investigate whether the rhythm of nest attendance interacts with the spatial and temporal availability of foraging habitats in Eurasian spoonbills Platalea leucorodia breeding on Schiermonnikoog, a Dutch Wadden Sea barrier island. Spoonbills are tactile foragers that forage during both day and night in habitats of varying salinity. GPS-tracking combined with acceleration-based behavioral classification of 9 female and 13 male adult spoonbills between 2013 and 2019 revealed that, despite nearby foraging opportunities following a tidal rhythm, nest attendance followed a sex-specific diel rhythm. During incubation and chick-rearing, females attended the nest at night and foraged during the day, while males showed the reverse rhythm. Females made more and shorter foraging trips to, almost exclusively, nearby marine habitats, whereas the larger males often made long trips to forage in more distant freshwater habitats. Before and after breeding, females as well as males foraged primarily at night, suggesting that this is the preferred period of foraging of both sexes. Nevertheless, foraging habitat use remained sex-specific, being most likely explained by size-dependent foraging techniques. To conclude, the sex-specific rhythm of nest attendance is not shaped by the spatial and temporal availability of foraging habitats.","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"102 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140198457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Juliette J Rubin, Jorge L Medina-Madrid, Jay J Falk, Ummat Somjee
{"title":"The matador bug’s elaborate flags deter avian predators","authors":"Juliette J Rubin, Jorge L Medina-Madrid, Jay J Falk, Ummat Somjee","doi":"10.1093/beheco/arae019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae019","url":null,"abstract":"Large, conspicuous traits frequently evolve despite increased predator attention, but in some cases, specifically to attract attention. Sexually selected traits provide some of the clearest examples of elaboration, yet natural selection can also be a powerful driver. The matador bug, Anisoscelis alipes (Hemiptera: Coreidae), has large, colorful flags on its legs that, unlike many other coreid species, are not used in reproductive competition. We hypothesized that these flags either a) warn predators of chemical defense, or b) deflect predatory attack to the removable hindlegs. We pitted matador bugs with or without flags and crickets (Acheta domesticus) with or without bug flags experimentally attached to their legs, against live motmot bird predators (Momotus subrufescens and Electron platyrhynchum). Contrary to the deflection hypothesis, almost none of the predatory strikes were directed at hindleg flags. Instead, we found support for the aposematism hypothesis: matador bug flags reduced attacks on palatable crickets, but were unnecessary to prevent predator attack against matador bugs. Palatability studies with naïve chicks (Gallus gallus) further supported a chemical defense hypothesis. Thus, these elaborate hindleg flags serve an aposematic anti-predator function, but in their absence, birds use alternative cues. These findings add to our understanding of the role of predation in driving the evolution of elaborate morphological structures.","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"110 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140150521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Beatriz C Saldanha, Patrícia Beltrão, Ana Cristina R Gomes, Marta C Soares, Gonçalo C Cardoso, Sandra Trigo
{"title":"Dietary tryptophan affects group behavior in a social bird","authors":"Beatriz C Saldanha, Patrícia Beltrão, Ana Cristina R Gomes, Marta C Soares, Gonçalo C Cardoso, Sandra Trigo","doi":"10.1093/beheco/arae018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae018","url":null,"abstract":"The amino acid tryptophan (Trp) is precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Trp supplementation or other forms of serotonergic enhancement generally promote pro-social behavior, decreasing aggression and also feeding in different animals. However, past research has been conducted in confined spaces, and there is little work in naturalistic conditions where animals move and associate more freely. We gave a Trp-enriched diet to a free-flying flock of common waxbills (Estrilda astrild) in semi-natural conditions, and monitored group foraging, aggressions during feeding and the social network. Contrary to expectations, aggressiveness and feeding increased during Trp supplementation. Consistent with the prediction of increased social associations, foraging groups became larger and individuals joined more foraging groups, but these changes appear driven by increased appetite during Trp treatment. Also, the mean strength of associations in the social network did not change. Overall, Trp supplementation affected group behavior in this free-flying flock, but mostly in directions unanticipated based on research conducted in small spaces. To harmonize our results with those found in small confined spaces, we hypothesise that free-flying birds have energetic requirements not experienced in lab-housed individuals, which may impact social behaviour and responses to Trp.","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140150647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Natalia Tepox-Vivar, Guadalupe Lopez-Nava, Juan H García-Chávez, Palestina Guevara-Fiore
{"title":"Sex-dependent audience effect in foraging guppies","authors":"Natalia Tepox-Vivar, Guadalupe Lopez-Nava, Juan H García-Chávez, Palestina Guevara-Fiore","doi":"10.1093/beheco/arae017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae017","url":null,"abstract":"The presence of bystanders can influence the behaviour of a forager, which has mainly been studied in primates and birds. We tested the effect of the absence and presence of an unfamiliar audience (females, males, and their combination) near or far from a food patch, on the foraging behaviour of guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Our investigation includes both males and females, recognising that different social dynamics and reproductive strategies between the sexes could lead to varied responses to audience effects. For each focal fish, we measured the latency to start feeding, bite frequency, time spent near the audience, and overall mobility. Both males and females started feeding faster when food was close to any audience type. Specifically, females exhibited a faster feeding response in the presence of a female audience. Males reduced their feeding rate in the presence of male and mixed audiences, while both sexes increased their consumption when food was close to the audience. Focal fish, irrespective of their sex, spent more time in the vicinity of the audience zone when the audience was present but, surprisingly, females spent less time with a female audience compared to others. Only females increased their mobility when the food patch was far from any audience. Here we show that guppies adjust their foraging behaviour in the presence of an audience. The specific responses observed varied between the sexes, reflecting the distinct social trade-offs faced by each sex.","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140150336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sexual selection: competition for resources provided by mating partners","authors":"Tim Janicke","doi":"10.1093/beheco/arae016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae016","url":null,"abstract":"Ever since Darwin’s pioneering work, the definition of sexual selection has been subject to recurrent controversies. The main focus of a more recent debate centers on whether or not sexual selection encompasses intra-sexual competition for resources other than gametes. Specifically, it has been proposed to define sexual selection as competition for access to gametes and to consider competition for any other resources provided by mates as forms of natural selection. In this review, I elaborate on several drawbacks of this gamete-centered approach arguing that it (i) implies an artificial split of pre-copulatory competition for mates into two indistinguishable processes, (ii) hinders the identification and quantification of sexual selection and therefore its separation from other forms of natural selection, (iii) gives rise to an overly male-biased perception on sexual selection, and (iv) does not conform to Darwin’s original conception. In an attempt to provide a definition, which is explicit regarding the ultimate target of intra-sexual competition, I propose to define sexual selection as competition for access to reproductive resources provided by potential mating partners. I specify the main characteristics of this alternative definition in the context of previous ones and discuss potential limitations.","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"68 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140126479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Paolo Panizzon, Jakob Gismann, Bernd Riedstra, Marion Nicolaus, Culum Brown, Ton Groothuis
{"title":"Effects of early predation and social cues on the relationship between laterality and personality","authors":"Paolo Panizzon, Jakob Gismann, Bernd Riedstra, Marion Nicolaus, Culum Brown, Ton Groothuis","doi":"10.1093/beheco/arae012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae012","url":null,"abstract":"Individual differences in laterality and personality are expected to covary, as emotions are processed differently by the two hemispheres and personality involves emotional behavior. Fish species are often used to investigate this topic due to the large variability in personality and laterality patterns. While some species show a positive relationship between lateralization strength and boldness, others show a negative relationship, and some show no relationship. A new way to assess the robustness of such relationship is to manipulate both laterality and personality to examine how this affects their relationship. To this end, we conducted a fully factorial design experiment manipulating predation and group size during early development. Results showed that the strength of laterality was influenced by predation threat, while social tendency and boldness were influenced by group size. These findings suggest that early life conditions can have an impact on laterality and social behavior. The relationship between laterality and personality traits, while present, was heavily influenced by the specific trial conditions, but not by the different developmental conditions. In summary, the relationship between laterality and behaviors appears to be context-dependent, yet resilient to early environmental manipulations.","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"142 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140055176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Himal Thapa, Adam L Crane, Gabrielle H Achtymichuk, Sultan M M Sadat, Douglas P Chivers, Maud C O Ferrari
{"title":"Predator metamorphosis and its consequence for prey risk assessment","authors":"Himal Thapa, Adam L Crane, Gabrielle H Achtymichuk, Sultan M M Sadat, Douglas P Chivers, Maud C O Ferrari","doi":"10.1093/beheco/arae014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae014","url":null,"abstract":"Living with a diverse array of predators provides a significant challenge for prey to learn and retain information about each predator they encounter. Consequently, some prey respond to novel predators because they have previous experience with a perceptually similar predator species, a phenomenon known as generalization of predator recognition. However, it remains unknown whether prey can generalize learned responses across ontogenetic stages of predators. Using wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) tadpole prey we conducted two experiments to explore the extent of predator generalization of different life stages of two different predators: (1) predacious diving beetles (Dytiscus sp.) and (2) tiger salamanders (Ambystoma mavortium). In both experiments, we used chemical alarm cues (i.e., injured conspecific cues) to condition tadpoles to recognize the odor of either the larval or adult stage of the predator as risky. One day later, we tested tadpoles with either the larval or adult predator odor to determine whether they generalized their learned responses to the other life stage of the predator. Tadpoles generalized between larval and adult beetle odors but failed to generalize between larval and adult salamander odors. These results suggest that the odor of some predator species changes during metamorphosis to an extent that reduces their recognisability by prey. This ‘predator identity reset’ increases the number of threats to which prey need to attend.","PeriodicalId":8840,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral Ecology","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140055304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}